


Space Christmas

by FeyduBois



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Gen, Jewish Character, M/M, Secret Santa, Space Christmas, holiday fluff, klangst, small mention of human sacrifice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 18:11:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13172430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeyduBois/pseuds/FeyduBois
Summary: The paladins decide to celebrate Christmas but Keith has never celebrated it before and it's not the same in space. It's time to create some new traditions.For Seonshine.





	Space Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [seonshine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/seonshine/gifts).



> Canon. This would be G but there is a small mention of human sacrifice and some swearing.
> 
> I'm sorry it's a bit late, I got tangled up in my own holiday celebration. I'm a closet fan and I've been staying with my sister so it's hard to be like "sorry fam, I'm just gonna go write some fan-fiction now."
> 
> Thank you to Varebanos for the beta-reading.

For Seonshine, Merry Klancemas

***

Pidge had figured out an Earth-Altean calendar a few weeks in, although the calendar meant little when the units of time didn’t quite convert, so she modified it to the Altean day length and they counted that way instead. Hunk was the one, however, who programmed the calendar and wrote up the little alerts that popped up at the start of each day cycle. He worked everyone’s birthday and all the major holidays they celebrate into it. 

“When exactly is Rosh Hashanah?” Hunk asked Pidge while he was programming it.

“It varies, usually mid September sometime.”

“Do you know when it’ll be this year?”

“Hunk?”

“Yes?”

“I don’t really care. Go ahead and put whatever holidays you want on there. I’ll just celebrate Hanukkah when you guys have Christmas and Passover when you have Easter. I don’t mind, I’ve had to do it my entire life.”

“But Pidge…”

“I’m not even devout. It’s fine.”

“Alright,” Hunk sighed. “But when you find your brother and dad you’ll have to tell me more, they wouldn’t stand by a regular Gregorian calendar from what you’ve told me.”

“Fine.”

It was thanks to this calendar, which they all had on the walls (digitally projected) of their rooms, and on the homescreen of every device in the castle, that they realized they were approaching December 25th.

On the 21st Hunk declared: “Oh, happy winter solstice, by the way!” over the breakfast table. 

Chaos broke out.

“It’s almost Christmas on Earth?” Lance declared.

“We’ve been away so long,” Pidge frowned.

“Almost the New Year,” Shiro said. “I didn’t even realize.”

“How are we gonna celebrate?” Lance said, “We have to do something. Do Alteans have Christmas? Obviously not… okay, but what do we do? We need a dinner, and a tree, lights, decorations, gifts…”

“Slow down there,” Shiro chuckled.

“But Shiro,” Lance cried, “It’s almost Christmas!”

“And we’ll have a celebration. It won’t be the same as Earth…” he said, trying to put weight to the statement without sounding gloomy, attempting to defuse the inevitable wave of homesickness that was looming, “But we can create new traditions.”

“Christmas!” Hunk declared, “We’ve got this!”

Lance and Hunk launched right into the plans, with Pidge and Shiro putting forward ideas they also wanted incorporated into the celebration. Coran and Allura asked dozens of questions, about Earth winter celebrations, and they had something similar on Altea, although with a slightly darker note (in ancient times Altean sacrifice had been involved).

Keith was quiet meanwhile; Shiro noticed and let him be, Lance also observed this.

“Is there anything you want to celebrate babe?”

Keith shrugged absently, “No, not really.”

***

It had never come up for them before. Holidays were not something they had talked about in their relationship so far, understandably since they had not been together long. They were still trying to balance their relationship with their rivalry, still getting to know each other.

“Keith,” Lance approached him from behind, trying not to startle him. Keith had been dressing after his shower and had just pulled on his t-shirt, about to start on his socks. He scowled.

“Hey babe.” Lance said. Keith instead let himself be gently pressed into a sitting position on the bed and receive kisses.

“Hey Lance,” Keith said.

“We need to talk.”

“About what?” Keith pulled on one sock.

“You know what. Christmas! New Years. The Holidays. Obviously it’s something that’s a sore spot for you…”

“It’s not a sore spot,” Keith said, defensively. He drew up the other sock.

“Well, you don’t have good memories about it.”

Keith chewed his lip nervously. “Yes, well... I don’t have bad ones either.”

“Okay,” said Lance, slowly, listening, “But like, what happened that scarred you in this way?”

“That’s the thing,” Keith said, “I don’t have any significant memories. There was never importance placed on the dates.”

“None?”

Keith shrugged, “It wasn’t something my dad and I did.”

“You didn’t do Christmas?”

Keith bit his lip and shook his head, ready for what was to come.

“You poor thing,” Lance said, moving to hug Keith tenderly.

Keith shrugged him off, standing and facing away from him, “Nope. Don’t you dare start that. I can’t handle the pity.”

“But Keith, it’s not… pity is something completely different. This isn’t pity. I just feel sorry for you.”

“That is pity.”

Lance sighed, “Can we not fight right now?”

“Are we fighting?” Keith asked.

“Feels like it,” Lance mumbled bitterly.

“I’m sleeping in my room,” Keith said. He stood in the doorway, asking for a last chance, waiting… Lance was ready to cave but he was done with Lance, done with all of this bullshit, all this drama, all this goddamned intimacy.

“Keith, wait!” Lance cried but the door was already hissing shut behind his boyfriend.

***

It took three tense days of holiday preparation and dodgy discussions about family before they spoke again beyond day-to-do trivialities.

“So,” Lance said, drawing air through his teeth in an attempt to be casual as he crept up next to Shiro while he was brushing his teeth. They were alone in the bathroom and Lance was trying to wrap his head around what was happening, “You’ve known him awhile, do you know why is Keith such a Grinch?”

Shiro spat out his toothpaste right away, “Pardon?”

He watched Lance’s reflection in the mirror, turning on the tap and filling a cup of water to rinse with. Lance shifted his weight from foot to foot, licked his lips, “I mean. He doesn’t like Christmas, or any holidays apparently. It’s like he grew up under a rock.”

Shiro spat out the rinse water, dumped the cup after it, and slowly drew the hand towel across his mouth, wiping away the neon blue froth, his gaze never leaving Lance’s in the mirror.

“Keith had a difficult childhood. He came to us, after a couple of foster homes, when he was eleven. He’d been basically alone since eight.”

“And Christmas?”

Shiro shrugged, “He had never celebrated it in his previous homes, and in my family New Year’s was a bigger deal, but we never pushed him into that either.” Shiro rehung the towel. “I’m sure though he got the impression - growing up in America - that Christmas was this big thing and somehow he was missing out on it. Like he couldn’t understand the ‘true meaning of Christmas’ or whatever because he’d never had one as a child.”

“Which is absolutely untrue!” Lance cried.

“It doesn’t feel like it for Keith.”

“Oh.”

“Oh?” Shiro said, parroting Lance.

“I think I’m starting to see it.”

Shiro nodded, “That’s right.

Lance tried to wrap his head around this. He excused himself and went to his room.

***

“Hey,” Keith said, knocking on the metal door frame coming into the room where Lance was wrapping gifts under low blue-tinted light.

“Hi,” Lance said tersely, “I was just about to get you.”

“To say you’re sorry?” Keith asked, violet eyes flashing angrily beneath thick lashes.

“I knew it was a sensitive spot and I pressed. I’m sorry. I wanted to get to know you, but you need time and that’s okay.”

Keith sighed and sat behind him, putting a hand to his shoulder. “It’s okay. I wasn’t very approachable. Sometimes it’s just like you and the other paladins have this whole cultural thing going and I’m just like, watching from the sidelines, and when you come too close to me I just, like, fire back, y’know?”

Lance nodded and toyed with the curly ribbon he was wrapping a gift with, “You feel vulnerable. But you don’t need to.”

“I don’t feel vulnerable,” Keith wrapped his hair between his fingers and clutched it, pulling it away from his head, trying to express this uncomfortable ball of energy, “That’s not it.”

“Okay, what is it then, babe?”

“Then it’s... I don’t know. That’s it. I don’t know, I am uneducated and inexperienced in a thing, in Christmas, and it’s embarrassing, and I know there’s all this togetherness and shit that’s made up of pine trees and tinsel, Santa and Jesus, peppermint and pumpkin spice, but I don’t know about any of that.” Keith paused. He let go of his hair and the corner of his mouth turned up bitterly, “Also, I fucking hate peppermint.”

“That’s fine,” said Lance, smiling with a touch of bitterness, “It’s actually hard for us who usually have Christmas. We would usually be home, home for the holidays like the song, with our family and our comfort food and all of that. But instead we’re here in fucking space. I love you guys like family, but there’s a void. Nothing is familiar and faking it or trying to imitate it just… it doesn’t feel right.”

“I’ve been living with that void for awhile.” Keith said slowly, and then suggested, “Maybe we can try a Space Christmas?”

With no home to return to for the holidays, no family that was not basically randomly chosen but close, no traditions to follow, the paladins of Voltron created a new holiday that was henceforth known as Space Christmas. Dinner involved challah bread, a space-turkey (more duck-like?), and a big cake for dessert following the main courses. The space-wine flowed freely, and with it so did, eventually, the cheer.

There was carolling, crying, a showing of an Altean classic holiday performance, and countdown to kiss at midnight as if it was New Year’s eve.

“To new traditions!” Shiro toasted.

“To new traditions” roared the others.

“To new traditions,” Lance said, Keith was ready to respond but Lance’s lips were on his. This was, in his opinion, the best tradition of Space Christmas.


End file.
